March 28th

Israel bulldozes Fayyad's Freedom Road, again ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 27, 2011 - 12:00am Israeli authorities bulldozed "Freedom Road" in the northern West Bank district of Salfit for the second time on Thursday. Freedom Road was funded by the Palestinian Authority, and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The project was part of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's plan to build institutions and infrastructure for a future Palestinian state. The road allowed Palestinian families to access their homes, schools, land and health clinics. Fayyad inaugurated the road in September 2010, but Israel's military destroyed it in November, while the prime minister was abroad. » Read more

Reality Check: Last thing we need is a 2nd round in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Jeff Barak - (Opinion) March 27, 2011 - 12:00am Let’s say Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decides to unleash Operation Cast Lead 2 following the recent wave of rocket attacks from Gaza. » Read more

Arrest raid targets Beit Ummar, 14 detained ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 28, 2011 - 12:00am Israeli forces detained 14 Palestinians overnight from the southern West Bank town of Beit Ummar, as construction of military road blocks and a fence surrounding one side of the residential area continue. Local activist Muhammad Ayyad Awad estimated that 150 Israeli soldiers entered the town during the campaign, which began at 2:30 a.m., as soldiers entered homes with sniffer dogs and took residents. Twelve of the 14 taken were identified, seven of them under the age of 18, one of whom was only 15 years old. » Read more

Why Israel is wary of getting into another Gaza war ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - March 24, 2011 - 12:00am Fighting along the Israeli-Gaza border that has killed at least 11 people continued Thursday for the sixth-straight day, despite parallel pledges by Israel and Hamas to restore calm amid the worst violence since the 2009 Gaza war. Israeli aircraft on Thursday fired on low-profile targets such as border smuggling tunnels, while Gaza militants launched mortars and homemade rockets into southern Israel. One rocket even struck within 16 miles of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. » Read more

Amid violence, pen pals in Congress focus on Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Ron Kampeas - March 23, 2011 - 12:00am It happens almost like clockwork: Something happens in the Middle East, and it reverberates across the Atlantic with new letters from the U.S. Congress. With so many relatively new members looking to establish their pro-Israel credentials, the reaction in Congress to the recent violence in Israel was particularly swift. » Read more

Why Israel is wary of getting into another Gaza war ATFP World Press Roundup Article from December 31, 1969 - 8:00pm Fighting along the Israeli-Gaza border that has killed at least 11 people continued Thursday for the sixth-straight day, despite parallel pledges by Israel and Hamas to restore calm amid the worst violence since the 2009 Gaza war. Israeli aircraft on Thursday fired on low-profile targets such as border smuggling tunnels, while Gaza militants launched mortars and homemade rockets into southern Israel. One rocket even struck within 16 miles of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. » Read more

Amid violence, pen pals in Congress focus on Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from December 31, 1969 - 8:00pm It happens almost like clockwork: Something happens in the Middle East, and it reverberates across the Atlantic with new letters from the U.S. Congress. With so many relatively new members looking to establish their pro-Israel credentials, the reaction in Congress to the recent violence in Israel was particularly swift. » Read more

Amid violence, pen pals in Congress focus on Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from December 31, 1969 - 8:00pm It happens almost like clockwork: Something happens in the Middle East, and it reverberates across the Atlantic with new letters from the U.S. Congress. With so many relatively new members looking to establish their pro-Israel credentials, the reaction in Congress to the recent violence in Israel was particularly swift. » Read more

Israel lawmaker wonders if his Labor Party may deserve its fate ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - (Interview) March 28, 2011 - 12:00am He says the Israeli left is in disarray and its standard-bearer Labor Party has betrayed its values so much, it might be renamed the "Prostitution Party." It's a harsh analysis, and somewhat surprising given that it comes from lawmaker Daniel Ben-Simon, one of the party's leaders. In January, Ben-Simon was so frustrated that he announced plans to leave Labor. But he changed his mind after former Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak quit instead to form his own party, just as other party leaders were threatening to oust Barak. » Read more

In Gaza, rocket attacks seen as a smokescreen ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Hugh Naylor - March 26, 2011 - 12:00am Yousef Mohammed, 61, is not ready to die by what he and many others in this besieged Palestinian territory cynically regard as little more than a ploy by Hamas. Militants here have recently been allowed to fire a flurry of rockets deep inside Israel, undermining more than two years of relative calm since the country's three-week military assault on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead, killed as many 1,400 Palestinians. Thirteen Israelis died in the fighting that also obliterated much of Gaza's infrastructure. » Read more